


the boy who survived

by rosestone



Series: the wrong boy [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Magical Dudley Dursley, Wrong Boy-Who-Lived (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 01:58:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16903956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosestone/pseuds/rosestone
Summary: If someone had asked Harry yesterday, he would have said there were only three things he could trust in life.  His parents were dead; his aunt and uncle would never treat him kindly; and the only chance he and his cousin had to survive them was to band together.Today, there are only two.





	the boy who survived

Harry stared at the two strangers across the living room.  He could see the resemblance.  His hair, his eyes. 

They were still strangers. 

Strangers who almost gleamed with the weight of things he'd never had.  He didn't know much about clothing, but he could tell how expensive theirs was, how precious the jewels around his mother's throat.  They were effortlessly upper-class in a way that would've grated on his aunt and uncle even if they _had_ been total strangers.  He could almost feel the jealousy coming off them.  
  
"We didn't want to give you up, Harry, I promise," the man said.  His father.  "It just... after the attack, you were... they didn't think you'd ever have magic."  
  
His mother leaned forwards.  Her eyes were wide with apparent sincerity.  "It seemed so cruel, asking you to live in our world when it'd never truly be yours.  I - I went and spoke to a lot of Squibs, when we were still hoping - it's so terribly hard for them, Harry, darling.  Our world isn't built for people without magic.  I - it just seemed kinder.  To let you grow up without that sort of expectation.  And public scrutiny.  And disappointment."  
  
"Oh."  He could feel their stares.  Waiting for a better answer, probably.  "Okay."  
  
"We're so glad you'll be able to come back with us," his father said.  "You'll be able to meet your brother - he has tutoring sessions in the summer, so he couldn't come along today, but I'm sure he's excited - oh, Lily, we have to do the other thing, as well."  
  
"Oh!  You're right, I'd almost forgotten, in all the excitement."  She turned to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, beaming.  
  
Harry's heart sank.  
  
His aunt and uncle had probably only managed to keep their composure through this talk of magic by reminding themselves they'd be shot of him soon enough.  They'd tucked themselves on either side of Dudley, as if to protect him from magical influences.  He hadn't worried about it when they'd first sat down; they liked Dudley, after all.  Now it looked more like a cage.  
  
The dawning horror on Dudley's face suggested he'd worked out what was coming too.  
  
"We went up to Hogwarts after we'd gotten the notification about Harry," his father said cheerily, apparently unaware of the twitching muscle in Uncle Vernon's cheek.  "Just to make sure everything was in order, you understand - the Healers really were very sure he'd been rendered a Squib - anyway, while we were there, we happened to notice another name in the Book, and Lily asked if we mightn't bring the letter ourselves.  Since we're family, you know."  
  
Harry had only ever seen Aunt Petunia really, properly angry a few times in his life.  She'd always looked the same way: cheeks dead white except for a bright red spot, eyes bright, lips pressed thin.  He never liked what came after that.  
  
They'd always counted themselves lucky that she'd never been that angry at Dudley.  He didn't know how to cope with it, how to survive.  He was better at other things: distracting his parents, hiding food to pass to Harry later, keeping the weird things that'd always happened around them from being as obvious as Harry's.  
  
She wouldn't do anything now.  She'd always been too clever to do things like that around other adults, and too good a liar for it to be worth trying to tell other adults after the fact.  But that wouldn't last after his parents took Harry away.  
  
Dudley was going to have to learn.  
  
If he'd known they were coming - if he'd known they were stupid enough to say something like this out in the open - he could've taught Dudley how to survive.  He wasn't stupid, not like the teachers thought, he just didn't always get things the first way people explained them and most people couldn't be bothered coming up with other ones.  But they didn't have time for that, and he wasn't good at teaching himself things.  
  
He'd have to learn that too.  
  
"Our son is a _what?_ "  Uncle Vernon's face was rapidly shading purple.  Not as much of a danger sign as most people would've thought, but it didn't take as much as Aunt Petunia to make him dangerously angry.  
  
"It's really very good news," his mother said.  Her expression suggested she was realising this might not have been the best way to present it.  "It's a wonderful gift - and very rare, too, something most people can't dream of -"  
  
Aunt Petunia's lips tightened.  
  
"He is _not_ going to some, some crackpot school to teach freakishness -"  
  
"But surely you don't want him to have to worry about doing accidental magic?" his father said.  "It's fairly inevitable without wand training, and it tends to get worse with age."  
  
"He's never _had_ any!"  
  
"Sometimes it's very subtle.  But James is right - it's really a necessity -"  
  
He tuned them out.  No matter how well-intentioned his parents were - and he had his doubts about that, considering they'd left him here - they weren't going to be able to convince his aunt and uncle that Dudley's magic was a good thing.  All it'd do would be upset them more, priming them for the explosion once they'd left the house.  
  
Would Dudley be able to convince them he hadn't known?  He was a decent enough liar, but they'd always been willing to believe him before, no matter how far-fetched the tale he told them.  He wouldn't have that advantage now.  
  
It might not even matter.  They'd never cared that Harry hadn't done things on purpose - well, not the things they'd known about, anyway - or that he hadn't known why they were happening.  They'd just been furious that they'd happened at all.  
  
He wished his parents hadn't come back for him.  They couldn't have wanted him, really; they'd only come back because of what she'd said before.  Public scrutiny.  They had enough status to have to worry about what people would think when it came out they'd abandoned their son, so now they were desperately trying to patch over the cracks before anybody could find out.  
  
If they hadn't bothered, he and Dudley might've managed.  They could've introduced the topic of his magic more gently than his parents had, given them a chance to adjust to the idea.  Maybe Dudley could've convinced them there was a mistake, but he'd have to go off to school to make his argument to the Headmaster, surely people like _that_ wouldn't come out here where normal people lived -  
  
And then they'd be free and clear.  They'd have almost a year away to plan, and maybe by the time they'd finished they could've found some kind of protective magic to use on themselves.  They'd never have to worry again.  
  
He didn't think his parents would let him come back and visit Dudley.  His aunt and uncle certainly wouldn't.  They wouldn't see each other again until Hogwarts - assuming Dudley even got to go.  
  
How were they supposed to watch each other's backs now?

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this story while plotting out an entirely different WBWL fic, while considering what would happen if that set of tropes collided with the what-if-Dudley-had-magic set of tropes. (There was a less angsty version, but it was basically "my pre-existing fic, plus Dudley", so I decided to go this way instead.)
> 
> I don't think I could write an entire fic featuring the shitty parents that James and Lily traditionally are in WBWL stories; I don't mind reading them, but on the whole, I prefer writing AUs in which Harry has a happier childhood and teens, and putting him directly into the hands of people who fall somewhere between "benignly neglectful" and "outright awful" doesn't play into that. This is short enough that I can deal with their shittiness, though.


End file.
